Swiss timekeeper at the Olympic Games

In the early modern Olympic Games from 1896 onwards, only a few stopwatches were used to measure time and thus determine the time of the first place winners. According to the official report, American Thomas Burke won the 100-meter sprint at the 1896 Athens Games in twelve seconds, timed by hand. No time was given for the runner-up. The mechanical stopwatches available at the time guaranteed an accuracy of 1/5 second.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the reliability and accuracy of timekeeping in sports became increasingly important, competition became central and records became more important. The organizing committees of major sporting events such as the Olympic Games depended on reliable tools and were interested in technical innovation. The goal was to measure times as accurately as possible to ensure comparability – not just with the competition in the same race, but with people all over the world.

In addition to the accuracy of the chronographs, human beings were a potential source of error, as they determined the start and end time at the touch of a button. Nevertheless, the OC of the 1930s Olympics still relied on human timekeeping. In order to measure times as reliably and reliably as possible, several people were responsible for measuring the time of an individual athlete in, for example, track and field competitions. This was despite the fact that electro-mechanical systems had been in existence for a number of years at that point, which, for example, would automatically stop the chronograph if a target band broke.

Along with the need in the sports world for the most accurate timepieces possible, the manufacturers of the associated devices recognized the enormous marketing potential. Several companies in the Swiss watch industry aspired to the high prestige associated with their name by providing this highly reliable instrument.

After chronographs from Swiss companies such as Longines or This year used to measure time at the Olympic Games until the 1920s, the watch manufacturer from Biel succeeded omega 1932 a coup: that International Olympic Committee (IOC) ordered exclusively at omega those 30 chronographs used in the competitions of all disciplines at the Los Angeles Olympics.

They could measure time to one-tenth of a second and were equipped with a rattrapante function: thanks to a second hand, the so-called drag hand, these chronographs can also measure split times. The split second hand, which synchronizes with the primary second hand when activated, can be stopped autonomously. In this way the split times can be read without having to stop the entire mechanism.

For the following years, Omega acquired its status as the official timekeeping partner of the OKbut mainly received through the company Longines from St. Imier competition from their own country.

The first post-war games in 1948 in St. Moritz (winter) and London (summer) replaced the conventional method of hand-timed Olympic times with the use of electronic aids. One came out for the first time omega developed technology that could use photoelectric cells to measure the exact moment the finish line was crossed. In London, officials also used the first photo-finish camera developed by the company British Race Finish recordingwith which, in addition to the exact time measurement, it was also possible to determine who placed first.

The era of quartz technology in sports timekeeping began in the 1950s. The 1952 Summer Games in Helsinki were the first Olympic Games to be contested entirely by electronic timekeeping. For the Omega time recorder received from the Bieler firm OK the Olympic Cross of Merit “for exceptional achievements in the service of sport”. The recorder could measure time to the hundredth of a second and print the results instantly.

Over the years, many other innovations related to sports timing followed, such as the display of split times in real time, for example in ski races, which was first used at the Innsbruck Winter Games in 1964.

The year 1964 marks a turning point in the historic relationship between the Olympic Games and representatives of the Swiss watch industry, which also shows that the history of timekeeping in the Olympic Games and in sports in general is not purely Swiss – even if the local industry likes it that way. From the 1960s, sports timekeeping became a battleground for the Swiss and Japanese watch industries.

The Tokyo 1964 Games OC nominated the Japanese company leading the way in quartz technology seiko to the official partner. seiko invested a lot of money in the development of watches and sports timekeeping devices and also managed to use its presence to increase sales in the wristwatch segment. Especially the Swiss watch industry omegabenefited from close links between the industry and previous years OK.

After seiko After breaking the Swiss monopoly on timing during the 1964 Olympics, watch companies turned to Swiss diplomacy to restore Switzerland’s supremacy in sports timing. The diplomats should campaign for the choice of Swiss timepieces in countries hosting international sporting events, which was successful, for example, with regard to the 1968 games in Mexico City – omega took over the timing again. One of the driving forces behind this strategy was the Federation de l’industry horlogère suisse (FH).

In addition to the threat of Japanese competition, the FH another problem: namely the competition between Swiss watch companies omega And Longinessuch as with regard to taking over the timekeeping of the Munich games in 1972. omega retired after conflicts and Longines acquired in cooperation with the German company Junghans the task.

After several attempts in the past and at least since 1964 to join forces in sports timekeeping within the Swiss watch industry, FH, omega And Longines after this episode in 1972 the company Swiss timing. From then on it would be responsible for the technical innovation of sports timekeeping within the Swiss watch industry and from 1983 belonged to the company that was founded at the time in the aftermath of the crisis in the Swiss watch industry Swatch group.

Externally, however, it was still the well-known brand names that appeared on the Olympics timetables. Swiss companies Longines, omega and also This year take turns seiko as an official timekeeper.

The competition also led to innovation in the field of electronic timekeeping, which led to the possibility of computer-aided processing of the data generated during timekeeping from the 1980s onwards, the development of transmitters used by athletes from the 2000s, for example for speed measurements in skating clothing and the transmission of the data in real time or the increasingly accurate measurement of time down to one millionth of a second.

From the 1930s rattrapantechronographs and the only watchmaker responsible for the accuracy of the watches in Los Angeles in 1932, about 400 tons of material, 200 kilometers of cable and fiber optics, 85 time displays, about 500 employees and 900 volunteers were used by the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games were in for smooth timekeeping on site and on TV.

omega is an official partner of the since 2006 OK for all Olympic competitions and has an exclusive contract to time the Games through 2032, the 100th anniversary year of the Los Angeles Games. Already presented for the 90th anniversary in 2022 omega a luxury pocket watch that die rattrapantechronograph from 1932.

With the 100th anniversary in mind, further marketing campaigns are likely to follow, underscoring the company’s tradition of timekeeping in sports. Keywords such as tradition, precision and innovation will probably be the focus here – and not internal competition or diplomatic actions to keep the competitors from Japan in check.